2" Bathonian Ammonite (Oppelia) Fossil - France

Bathonian Ammonite (Oppelia) Fossil - France #152733

This is a 2" fossil ammonite of the species Oppelia sp., collected from St. Benin, France. It is Bathonian (Jurassic period) in age, or approximately 168 million years old.

Ammonites were predatory mollusks that resembled a squid with a shell. These cephalopods had eyes, tentacles, and spiral shells. They are more closely related to a living octopus, though the shells resemble that of a nautilus. True ammonites appeared in the fossil record about 240 million years ago. The last lineages disappeared 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous.

What an ammonite would have looked like while alive.

More about ammonites